One key factor is that you must make sure that every character has all of their skillpoints assigned. Dock with Omega and make sure everything is good to go. It's probably a good idea to evolve each of their class traits. You also need to do the loyalty quests for each character. Then of course you need to put them in the right roles.
I used Garrus for leading the second squad (in both circumstances). Was a good choice because he took a bullet to the gut at the door. His armor saved him. I put Legion in the vent (figured a computer could hack a computer well enough, and he's wearing MY armor so he'd probably be tough. Tali is fragile). Grunt led the survivors back, figured I'd need a "tank" for that, and Jack was the Mobile Biotic Field Generator (did you SEE her own those mechs? Samara would be a smear on the wall, but I bet she'd do fine as well, just not Miranda. Don't put Miranda in charge of anything. I'm convinced she's a colossal idiot for all her genetic engineering, and I doubt Jacob is powerful enough).
For my own squad I used Tali and Mordin both times. Mordin is great because of his Incinerate (and his singing voice is lovely). Between my Sentinal barrier warpage, Tali's little distraction probe, and Mordin's Incinerate the Collectors are pushovers. Actually just about everything was a pushover with those two. Sentinal is also really good for fighting hordes of the zombie guys, forget what they're called. Once they pop your energy armor (you know, when they back you into a corner and are dry humping you to death), they just all fall flat and they're easy to mop up.
I was driving sims before I first started karting. It definitely helped, but I still had to learn everything - it just made the learning process a bit faster, because I already knew what countersteer, understeer and oversteer was, the basic concepts of grip and apexes, etc. But it definitely didn't stop me from going "woah, that's fast" and backing off the first time I went down the straight at 60.
At this point in time, after 2 years of instruction from a team of coaches, simulators hold very little value for me in terms of learning things. They keep my skills from degrading too much during the off season, and iRacing will help me to learn new tracks, but other than that I would rather have 10 laps of real track time than 100 laps of a virtual track, heck maybe even 1,000 laps. In terms of learning setups, the changes I will be making in real life will be too fine to feel in a sim, the range of limit in real life is too narrow to consistently hit in a sim without the G forces, and the racing is too close in real life to be able to keep it clean in the sim with the lack of situational awareness that you have on the computer.
For the record, I'm quite fast in real life (check my videos), just as fast as my coaches, hand-picked by Jim Russell, and when I went to do a high performance course in road cars at Skip Barber the instructors there were highly impressed, but in sims I've never been able to get that 'nth degree out of the car, so no, I don't believe that skill is transferable. You can learn things about the virtual world from racing in real life, and you can learn some things that you would learn in real life with virtual track time, but being fast in real life and being fast in a simulator is about as related as being fast in a NASCAR stock car and being fast in a Formula car. Some people are naturally gifted at both, most people are good at one and not so good at the other. Look at many of the professionals who use iRacing - some are very good, yes, but some are quite mediocre or even bad.
Well, this week 13 business is not really going over well with me. I don't really like it. Why are we still running the exact same configurations in the rookie cars? Why isn't the Solstice being put on Summit Point or Charlotte? Why isn't the Legends getting a turn on the road courses? Mix it up a little, it's fun week!
I also think 13th week would be a great opportunity to get the basic content guys (IE, me) wanting to pay for new content by allowing us to test out a new track/car combo. The 2.4 hours of Daytona would be a prime example of a DP test drive. Get us hooked on the car with some real competition, and we'll be more likely to buy it.
If I do something unsporting and I gain position out of it, then I let the other driver back by. This happened recently in iRacing. I accidentally spun a guy on the last lap and I slowed to let him by. I sacrificed a win for it.
In real life, though, hell no. I don't intentionally spin people, and if something accidental happens and I win because of it, I'm going to take the win and maintain my "racing incident" position.
I've been doing a couple Legends races... holy crap, those things are crazy. Seems like every race either I get taken out, or I take someone out on accident, and that combined with guys that don't know how to get lapped it seems like the whole race is hardly controlled chaos.
Just got my first win at Laguna in the Solstice. Took me 32 starts to get it... first pole too. 2nd was glued to my ass the whole race, and rear-ended me in the last corner, but I held it barely and won by half a second.
Top lap times online in the GT5 demo get invited to finals, finals winners go to Silverstone for a driver evaluation and the winner gets a ride in GT4.
Yeah I can see that. Another point too is that sims, no matter how realistic, will always have little quirks to be exploited. Someone driving the sim in the same manner that they do in real life would most likely not take advantge of these quirks. Like the extreme and unrealistic setups some people use in LFS, or the constant power shifting in iRacing.
I find driving well in the virtual world is harder. I find it's easier in real life because you can feel everything. With sims you have to guess a little bit and it's like driving blind. My favorite thing about driving fast is feeling the car start to shift around and get a bit squirmy, and I don't get that in sims.
Interesting. The retooled dyno stuff and the altitude changes gave the Solstice another 2 seconds per lap around Laguna. Used to run high 1:49s now I'm down to 1:47.9. Carrying more speed on straights and shifting sooner - can't ride the 3rd rev limit into 6 any more.
The new throttle map is sex, too. Feels and responds great even with my cruddy microsoft pedals.
The controller turns off automatically after 10 minutes to save batteries.
Just plug in the USB charger and the controller will never turn off. Or put a rubber band on one of the sticks (continued input keeps the controller from turning off).
If all else fails, you can join NASA and do their HPDE system. It's cheaper on the surface at 360 for two days, but you go out during a race-weekend and there are hundreds of enthusiasts that show up and other classes to run. You should still get at least two hours of track time over the two days, probably more. There's an event coming up at Virginia International Raceway. The only road course I'm aware of in Virginia is VIR.
I'll try to dig up some trackday-only org for you. But NASA will get you on-track and maybe even get you a race license if you want to go all-out and can afford it later (HPDE is their licensing method, as well as a trackday service).
If you want, you can contact VIR administration and they will know who to look up for trackdays only.
EDIT: Asphalt Ventures holds open track sessions at VIR for 300/three hours or 350/four hours. The site hasn't been updated lately though. You might try contacting them still.
Tarheel Sports Car Club runs time trials and HPDEs at VIR as well, and seem more organized than AV. 350/375 for two days/2.5-3 hours. VIR seems expensive to rent...
... maybe not. TrackDaze do events on the east coast/VIR and you can choose to do one day or both days. 190 each day, 2 hours of track time per day, or 370 for two days/four hours.
It's different for different organizations, but out here dripping oil will fail the tech inspection I'm afraid.
250-290 will buy you almost 3 hours of free track time out here on the west coast, at Infineon or Thunderhill. Laguna is a little bit more expensive (350-400). Sometimes the prices get below 200 for nearly 2 hours. Some places do it even cheaper (nearer 150), but you get a lot less track time. I'd imagine it would be cheaper out east, tracks generally cost less to rent out there from what I understand. But I'd still expect to pay 250-300 per day, just to be safe. You can usually rent a track day car, which is usually a quieted club racer of some kind (track days usually have decibel tests). Expect to pay 500 to 1,000 for the rental car itself if that's what you want to do. But as long as it's mechanically sound you can take pretty much whatever you want out. I saw an El Camino once. Even Minivans sometimes get thrashed out there.
If you've never been on a track before you might require an instructor to sit in with you for an hour or so, and you'll be put in a novice class with mandatory point-bys (either by hand or turn signal, depending on the organization) and possibly designated passing zones. But other than that, you're free to go as fast as you want, as long as you want (sessions are usually 20-40 minutes with multiple sessions in the day). Sometimes you'll even get an "open track" day which is exactly what it says - hit the pit lane and go, as long as you want, from sunrise to sunset. Those are the best ones.
Why are they even making an F1 game anyway? The F3 cars from Grid were posting faster lap times than F1 cars lol.
I've been testing the SRF a bit now that I've got more of a handle on the physics and I started setting it up so it's possible to drive a lap without spinning. As I've got it right now it's quite fun to drive. I'll prolly start racing it next week.
I have no problem with him drifting on public roads, provided there is no one else around. He already said there's no one else around, so I say carry on. The problem is people that do that stuff in civic centers at rush hour.
I live in such a crowded place that unfortunately I'd have to drive for about half an hour to get anywhere with few people, so I never get to really push it like that on test drives.
PS, test model cars are pretty much written off before they arrive on the lot. Thrash them unabashedly.
The slip angle requirement for optimal four-corner grip is different with different tires. I'm going to completely guess numbers, but a road car can get away with up to 10 or more degrees before you have to countersteer, because the side walls are soft. A Formula 1 car is less than 2, because it has extremely strong side walls. Even if they were using zero-steer techniques, it would be hard to spot without looking at hard data. I suspect they also don't use it because of airflow reasons.
If you really want to understand slip angle, try rallying. Lack of surface friction and soft side walls means a huge difference in cornering speed and steering control between 0 and 30 or more degrees of slip angle. Ever seen a rally car understeer while carrying drift angle? Happens all the time.
Fact is it is mathematically proven that fast laps are done with less steering input. The more angle you carry, up to a point, the less steering you have to use. Anyone who's ever used a data logger knows this. Ross Bentley did a chapter on it in Speed Secrets 6, even though he didn't get technical. The amount of drift is not important, what's happening with the wheel is. If the wheel is approaching zero steering input during a corner, then that's all you need to know that the car is four-wheel-drifting. Especially on the exits during a pole lap, you can see this in Formula 1 cars - they tend to give "stabs" of zero-steering while adding power.
I don't think that's the best example. Trailing throttle under brakes is a commonly understood bug. You don't drive the real car like that. They're set up to teach you to trail brake.
Now a Spec Racer Ford (in real life, not iRacing), that is definitely a throttle-on car from entry to exit. The rear suspension is so stiff that you need to weight it to get any grip. If you get into a slide in one of those you need to add throttle or spin.
Not me, lol. 20-something starts and no wins yet... almost had a win tonight at Lime Rock but I spun it with 2 corners to go and finished 2nd with a crumpled nose.
Most of the time I'm finishing 4th-7th. Sigh.
I've been trying the Radical more seriously tonight, now that my safety rating is high enough. It's impossible to drive at Lime Rock. I always spin it and wreck in the last corner because of that bump.
Maybe I'm just not cut out for sim racing. I feel like I'm blind without my butt moving around. My arse is a precision instrument darn it!
People will advance at different rates, especially new racers. It's all based on average incidents per corner, and it takes over 1600 past corners into account.
I had a string there where I would only advance .08 or .10 per race, with a couple 1xs per race. But then I had 1 completely clean race, and my rating shot up .55.
So since it's an average, if you come out of the gate very safe with no incidents, you could be a D in just a couple races. I went to D in like 3 or 4 (I was very slow, so I let people by), then I started getting fast and racing people and I slowed right down in my progression because incidents naturally started to happen more often.
What I'm trying to say is it's hard to compare different individuals' safety rating, since everyone accrues incidents at different rates - some have a string of clean races and then one really disastrous one, and some people have a string of light incidents that add up over time. This affects your gains and losses in very different ways, especially across license levels.